Colosseum/Roman Forum/Palatine Hill on free Sunday

I had the exact same question because I made the same mistake about arriving during the first weekend of the month - we're arriving Sept.2, leaving to Siena on the 5th in the evening.. From what I read in Rick's 2016 Italy book on pg 826 (Daily Reminders) - "On the first Sunday of the month, these sights [the ones you listed] are free to all (no reservations are available) and very crowded." So, I'm guessing you have no choice but to line up and can't skip the queue.. (this even changed our plan of getting the Roma Pass over the weekend - no sense if one of your days is free, and one can't even use it to jump the line..)

Jess, as DK said, reservations/ticketing isn't possible for free Sundays so you'll be lining up at the Colosseum and Palatine/Forum (connected). The Colosseum will have the vastly more challenging queue.

Last fall I went on a free Sunday. I skipped the colosseum because I toured it before. I went in through the Palatine Hill entrance about mid morning and only had one couple ahead of me in the line when I got there. Then you can walk into the forum from Palatine Hill without waiting in line again. Now the line to get into the colosseum, that was huge.

Hi DK:
Here is an update on our experience - you do still need to line up and are given a free ticket (including kids) for entry valid for all 3 sites on free Sundays. The ticket is good for 1 day only, even though it may say for 2 days which is the case if you had pay for it. We arrived at the Roman Forum ~9:30am and got tickets fairly quick (<20 min) and spent some time there. By the time we made it to the Colosseum at ~11am, the lines were extremely long, we were told at least 45 min for the line WITH ticket. In fact they had stop letting people in due to full capacity, i.e., they can't let more people in until the people inside leave. You can still join the many tour groups to get faster entry, per the solicitors. Another option is to come back in the late afternoon 1-2 hours before closing, I was told the crowd should be much less by then. We decided not to go in Colosseum and went to lunch instead. Hope this helps your planning.

thanks for the advice jess.. we actually decided to take our "Caesar Walk" (Colosseum, Roman Forum, Palatine) and other places on Saturday Sept 3. We are planning on picking up our day pass at the Forum first thing in the morning, then walking back to the Colosseum and standing in the "with ticket" line, all to avoid the longer line at the Colosseum to buy the tickets (unless our forum friends can suggest a better plan?). For the free Sunday, we are choosing to get out of the way in Rome, and make a day of Ostia Antica, then back in the city to the Piazza Navona/Campo di Fiori area, catch the Pantheon around closing time, then finishing with supper in Trastavere. On our next trip, we will pay closer attention to when the free/busy dates are..

DK, you can buy your entry tickets online and go straight to the colosseum. If you are buying only full priced adult tickets you can print them at home and take them with you.

http://www.coopculture.it/colosseo-e-shop.cfm

Donna

Done! thank you Donna! (Underground tours seem sold out, but maybe we'll get lucky at the door..)

The underground tour is sold out through the end of September. There are none available so book another tour if you want more information on the site. They don't hold back any tickets to sell on site and no one ever cancels this tour since it's so hard to get.

Donna